Door assembly



Sept 23 l952 M. H. GUENTHER DOOR ASSEMBLY Filed March 28, 1947 JNVEN T OR. Mw.; 6MM-um Patented Sept. Z3, 1952 UNITED STATES ,latelyT`l lorries noon ASSEMBLY Y Martin H. Guenther, Atlanta, Ga., assigner to .I Armstrong Cork Company, Lancaster, Pa'., a corporaticn of Pennsylvania Application March 28, 1947, Serial No. 737,970

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a cold storage door assembly and, particularly, to` a cold storage door in which the frame, door;v and sill are fitted together in an assembly at the factory and shipped as a unit to the consumer.

In the building of cold storage rooms and the like, it has been common practice for the manufacturer of the cold storage door to place angle irons across the bottom of the frame to hold the door jambs in proper alignment so that the frame need merely to be placedl in position and the concrete wearing floor .poured over the angle irons. In this type of construction, the concrete is poured in the area of the threshold and then trowelled to the properlevel at the doorway and is given a gradual downward slope immediately in front of the doorway. The concrete floor under the door must b e suiiiciently high to permitV the gaskets on the bottom Voi the door to contact the floor when the door is closed, thereby sealing the openingibetween the door and the floor to prevent air leakage .into or from the cold storage room. The purpose .of the slight ramp immediately in front of the door is to allow the gaskets to clear the iloor in the adjacent area as the door is swung open, thereby preventing unnecessary frictional wear of the gaskets land facilitating the opening and closing of a relatively bulky and heavy door. It is important that the ramp be gradual so as not to present an obstacle to hand trucks being pushed into the cold storage room and also to permit boxes and crates to be slid into and out of the room where the area is for bulk food storage, for example.

ln installations of this kind, a great deal of diiculty has been experienced in properly contouring the floor at the threshold to obtain both a proper seal between the door gaskets and the floor and, also, to obtain'the proper slope in the ramp.

It is also found that in many installations where heavy crates are slid over the floor, the

wearing surface at the threshold is eroded toV such an extent that an air-tight seal is no longer possible -between the door gaskets and the floor.

An object of this invention is to provide a prefabricated cold storage door assembly which can be manufactured and precision-fit at the factory and delivered to the contractor ready for installation which will insure a properly shaped and reinforced threshold.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sill construction which provides a guide to control the height of the concrete threshold and the slight ramp in front ofthe door, making it possible -for an unskilled construction laborer to trowel the concrete to the proper` contour.

A further object of this invention is to provide' a wear resistant, reinforced threshold for cold storage rooms and the like,y which will not berapidly'geroded or worn away by the severe conditions normally encountered in use.

In order that my invention may be more readily understood,'it will be described in connection Y poured and trowelled to the finished contour, and

Figure V5 is a vertical'cross-sectional view similar to' Figure 4 but with the gridattached to theangle irons. f

Referring to Figure l, there is shown'a grid 2 which'may be stamped,` cast, or built up by welding. At the present time, I have found it highly advantageous to stamp these grids from boiler plate. In this figure, the numeral 3 designates the metal cross members forming the grid,

`and the numeral 4 designates the openings through which the concrete of the threshold is appliedv in installation. p

The forward edge of the sill, the part which is outside the, doorway, has a gradual downward slope shown at 5 in Figures 2 and 4. The purpose of this slight slope is to allow the gaskets or other sealing elements afxed to the bottom of the door -to clear the main floor adjacent the door as the door is swung open, thus eliminataing frictional engagement between the gaskets with the main floor; ythe gaskets engage only the upper surface of the threshold when the door is closed.

In the manufacture of cold storage doors embodying this invention, the frame is constructed in the conventional manner with the usual angle irons 6 holding the lower extremities of the door jambs 1 in proper vertical alignment. The grid sill 2 shown in Figure 1 is then secured in place above the angle irons in such manner that when the frame is installed in a vertical plane, the portion of the sill 2 which is inside the cold storage room and the portion of the sill which will underlie the door are level with the front portion, i. e. the portion outside the door sloping gradually downwardly as shown in Figures 2 and 4. The sill 2 may be Welded to the angles 6 or may be secured to the door jambs, being so positioned with respect to the door opening as to form a proper seal between 'the gaskets 8 secured Vto the undersideof the door and the metal cross members 3 of the sill when the door is positioned andthe sill concreted in place. This tting may be, and preferably is, accomplished at the factory before the assembly is shipped for installation.

Referring to Figure 4, there is illustrated a cross-sectional view of the completed installation, showing a cold storage door 9 hung on the door jamb 1 in such manner that the sealing gaskets 8 are in contact with the threshold comprising the grid 2 and the concrete I0. It will be seen from this illustration that the portion 5 has sufficient slope to allow the sealing gaskets 8 to clear the floor as the door is swung open.

When the frame is to be installed on the job in the cold storage room, it is only necessary to place the frame in its proper vertical position, plumb and level it, and pour the concrete into the openings of the grid and theadjacent floor areas. After the concrete has been poured, it is trowelled in the threshold and ramp areas so that it will lie level with the top of the metal grid. inasmuch as the sill and door have been precision t at the factory, this trowelling of the cement to the level of the grid will insure a proper seal between the door gaskets and the threshold, and it will also insure the proper clearance in front of the door to permit the door to be swung open with the door gaskets free of engagement with the main floor area.

In addition to providing a sill construction. which insures a proper air-tight seal between the door gaskets and the sill, it will be obvious that I have also provided a structure which will resist erosion of the licor caused by friction and moisture resulting `from sliding heavy crates of products over the sill. The metal sill plate which is considerably more resistant to wear than the concrete, reinforces the concrete to such an extent that an air-tight seal is maintained for long periods even under adverse service conditions.

In the preferred embodiment described above, the entire door assembly is assembled and tted at the factory and shipped as a unit lto the construction site. It should be borne inmind, however, that the parts for the door assembly can be shipped unassembled and'fitted on the job by an experienced carpenter vin such manner that the concrete threshold can be tro-welled without diiiiculty by unskilled construction hands.

The particular grid illustrated herein shows a 4 series of small open squares. However, it will be understood that grids of any configuration may be used satisfactorily for this purpose.

While I have illustrated and described certain preferred embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that the same is not limited thereto, but may be otherwise employed and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a building structure having insulated walls and an insulated floor, the combination of a door assembly in one of said walls comprising a door frame, a metal frame and sill support connected to the lower extremities of the upright members of the door frame below the floor level, a metal door sill disposed between the upright members of the door frame and securely attached to the metal support and terminating in the licor level, said sill having openings extending therethrough, a door hinged to said frame for movement about a vertical axis, gasketing means disposed on said door and engageable with said sill when said door is in closed position, and a cementitious flooring material encasing the metal frame and sill support and filling the openings in said perforated sill, substantially flush with the upper surface thereof and extending beyond the sill in the front and rear thereof.

2. In a building structure having insulated walls and an insulated floor, the combination of a door assembly in one of said walls comprising a door frame, a pair of angle irons connecting the lower extremities of the upright members of the door frame to support the door frame and sill, a metal door sill disposed between the uprightmembers of the door frame and welded to the angle irons and terminating in the floor level, said sill having openings extending therethrough, a door hinged to said frame for movement about a vertical axis, gasketing means disposed on said door and engageable with said sill when said door is in closed position, and a cementitious flooring material encasing the angle irons and lling the openings of said perforated sill, substantially flush with the upper surface thereof and extending beyond the sill in the front and rear thereof.

MARTIN H. GUENTHER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 351,260 Foster Oct. 19, 1886 817,199 Stevenson Apr. 10, 1906 962,174 Stevenson June 2l, 1910 1,432,171 Ficklen Oct. 17, 1922 1,645,538 MacDonald Oct. 18, 1927 1,788,548 Siebs Jan. 13, 1931 

